The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is casting a net for PR and marketing agencies that qualify as small businesses and can handle integrated multicultural communications assignments.

The federal entity said it wants to hear from firms “capable, available and qualified” for work like press conference support and earned media campaigns and assignments promoting Medicare, Medicaid, provisions of the Affordable Care Act, among other topics, to Hispanic, African American and Asian-American Pacific Islander audiences.

CMS, as the federal agency is known, works with Ketchum, Ogilvy, Porter Novelli, Weber Shandwick and Fleishman-Hillard as its prime PR contractors.

CMS said it previously hired separate firms for each multicultural audience but wants to gauge the availability of firms which can handle the work across various audiences on an integrated basis.

Among the assignments is developing and executing “culturally appropriate … public relations campaigns and in-language advertising,” earned media, grassroots outreach, and partnership development, according to a “sources sought” notice released by CMS.

“As a result of the [Affordable Care Act], CMS will be conducting outreach and education to new audiences,” said the notice.